Udayangani improves on her pole vault record

Chris Dhambarage

Promising athlete Ishara Udayangani from Lanka Lions Sports Club produced a fine performance to establish a new meet record on the opening day of the 87th national athletic championships which commenced at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.

Udayangani in fact improved on her own performance in the women's pole vault final by clearing a good height of 2.90 metres. She bettered her previous best effort of 2.80 metres which was set up in 2008.

Even then Udayangani still failed to reach the barrier of 3.80 metres which is set as the minimum standard to qualify for the forthcoming 18th Asian Championships in China.

In addition the experienced Padma Nandani Wijesundera of Track Masters Sports Club retained the women's discuss throw title with a pleasing perform

ance of 44.08 metres.

This was of course not her best effort considering the fact that she had earlier cleared a distance of 47.50 in August 2006. Nevertheless she was able to get closer to the minimum qualifying mark of 46.50 metres.

Meanwhile N. C. D. Priyadarshani of Sri Lanka Army Sports Club also put up a splendid performance to win the women's long jump event with a tremendous effort of 6.23 metres.

Her performance was even more significant considering the fact that she almost touched the qualifying mark of 6.23 metres and could be a certainty for the Asian Championships.

In the men's long jump event N. P. Dharmaratne also from Sri Lanka Army Sports Club made a fine impact with a determined effort of 7.24 metres which is just 0.46 metres behind the minimum qualifying standard for the Asian Championships.

In the men's 200 metres final Shivantha Weerasuriya of Sri Lanka Navy SC clocked a timing of 21.6 seconds while in the women's 200 metres final Premila Priyadarshani of Sri Lanka Air Force SC returned a timing of 24.62 seconds.

Meanwhile Indika Bandara of Kandy DAA won the men's 3000 metres steeple chase event with a time of 9 minutes, 03.88 seconds while in the women's 3000 metres steeple chase final P. K. Abeyratne of Sri Lanka Army clocked 11 minutes 31.06 seconds.

In addition Charith Kapukotuwa of Lanka Lions SC took the men's discuss throw event with a performance of 45.09 metres. The meet conducted by the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka and sponsored by Sri Lanka Telekom will be continued today with a total of 12 finals on the card.

Today's finals:

8.00 a.m - Men's 10,000 metres

9.00 a.m - Men's pole vault

9.00 a.m - women's 100 metres hurdles

9.10 a.m - Men's 110 metres hurdles

10.00 a.m - Men's triple jump

10.00 a.m - Men's shot put

2.00 p.m - women's javelin throw

3.00 p.m - Women's high jump

3.30 p.m - Women's triple jump

4.10 p.m - Women's 800 metres

4.20 p.m - Women's 5000 metres

4.30 p.m - Men's 1500 metres